Airtel Data Revenue Hits $164.5m Amid Tariff Hike

Airtel Africa Plc’s data revenue for Nigeria mobile services rose by 60.3 per cent to $164.53m in first quarter (Q1) of 2025 from $ 117m in 2024, driven by recent hike in tariff, active user base growth and higher data consumption.

This followed the company’s receipt of regulatory approval for price adjustments.

Data revenue grew by 60.3 per cent in constant currency, as a function of both data customer and data ARPU growth of 11.3 per cent and 46.8 per cent, respectively.

Data usage per customer increased by 27.3 per cent to 9.3 GB per month (from 7.3 GB in the prior period), with smartphone penetration increasing 4.8 per cent to reach 51.4 per cent.

Smartphone data usage per customer reached 11.8 GB per month compared to 9.9 GB per month in the prior period.
Voice revenue equally grew by 36.7 per cent in constant currency, driven by voice ARPU growth of 29.3 per cent.

Revenue grew by 48.6 per cent in constant currency, largely driven by continued strength in the demand for data services further supported by the full quarter impact of tariff adjustments.

EBITDA of $185m improved by 49.9 per cent in reported currency and increased by 71.7 per cent in constant currency. The EBITDA margin increased 750 basis points to 55.7 per cent, driven by the strong revenue growth and continued benefits arising from the cost efficiency programme.

The strong margin performance was also supported by stable fuel prices, and more favourable operating conditions.

Operating free cash flow was $146m, up by 108.5 per cent in constant currency contributed by EBITDA growth. In reported currency, operating free cash flow increased by 71.1 per cent, lower compared to constant currency growth, due to lower reported currency EBITDA growth following the Nigerian naira devaluation.

Chief Executive Officer, Sunil Taldar, on the trading update said the group is very pleased with the strong growth in our operating and financial performance in the first quarter.

“The strength of this performance, and the scale of the growth we achieved, reflects the sustained demand for our services and the strength of our business model to meet these demands. Operationally, the acceleration in customer base growth to 9 per cent, and 17.4 per cent growth in our data customers to 75.6m reflects the strong on-ground execution with a relentless focus on digitisation and the simplification of the customer experience.

“Our strategy continues to prioritise the customer experience, as demonstrated by the launch of Airtel Spam Alert—an AI-powered solution aimed at enhancing trust and delivering a safer network environment. This underscores our commitment to leveraging technology to lower barriers to smartphone adoption. With smartphone penetration at only 45.9 per cent, we see significant headroom to drive further adoption and play a key role in bridging the digital divide.

“Mobile money remains a cornerstone of our current and future growth proposition. With our customer base approaching 46 million and expanding by over 16 per cent, we see significant potential to further advance financial inclusion through the continued growth of our financial services offering.

“The continued expansion of our mobile money portfolio and the advancement of enterprise and digital payments contributed to a 35% growth in annualised transaction value to $162bn. We will continue to focus on technology and the range of product offerings to deliver a differentiated experience for our customers,” he said.

Airtel Data Revenue Hits $164.5m Amid Tariff Hike is first published on The Whistler Newspaper